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October 8, 2015

NCC Laments Umpqua Shooting

The National Council of Churches (NCC) laments the loss of ten lives this week in the incident of gun violence at Umpqua Community College in Roseburg, Oregon this week. This school shooting, the 45th this year, and the 142nd since the massacre on December 14, 2012 at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut. We join in grief with the families and loved ones of the dead, and in prayer for the nine injured in this senseless incident.

“It is astounding to me that there is still no meaningful effort to enact common-sense laws to stop these mass killings from taking place,” said Jim Winkler, President and General Secretary of the National Council of Churches, a coalition of 37 Christian communions in the United States. “Even as these events continue to take place, and as they are actually increasing in frequency, I refuse to become numb to this horrible part of our life together as American people.”

The NCC, through its partnership with Faiths United to Prevent Gun Violence, calls upon each and every congregation to join in the annual Gun Violence Prevention Sabbath and pledge to strive toward a society in which we no longer have to fear attending a movie, a worship service, or school.

The NCC asks the National Rifle Association to work with us to urge Congress to enact meaningful legislation that preserves 2nd Amendment freedoms while dramatically reducing gun violence in this nation.

We remember the words of scripture, “The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life, but violence takes lives away (Proverbs 11:30 NRSV).”